TAKE OUT - CONCEPT WORKSHEET

TITLE FOR CONCEPT: “Take Out”

PROJECT VENUE / FORMAT: I would show this film at a film festival and share it over YouTube. Because it is a short film, it would better serve itself at film festivals rather than on TV. YouTube would allow it to spread across the globe, and it would be involving enough to keep audience members engaged through the short running time. 

RUNNING TIME: Approximately 14 - 18 minutes.

Beginning: Approximately 3 - 4 minutes

Middle: Approximately 8 - 9 minutes

Climax: Approximately 2 - 3 minutes

End: Approximately  1 - 2 minutes

TYPE OF CONTENT: A live action film with a realistic situation and characters. 

VISUAL LOOKS OF CONCEPT: Mainly dark, to express the dark feelings the characters feel towards each other. Normal clothing, normal house. 

STORY STATEMENT: A business man who suspects his wife of cheating on him follows her car after she leaves her work. She’s supposed to be going to a yoga class, but the husband follows her to a man’s house and his suspicions are confirmed. When she gets home that night he confronts her about her adultery. She tries to deny the accusations at first, but once she realizes she is caught she admits that she has been having an affair. The man, very angry, asks her why if she wasn’t happy with her life why she didn’t just leave instead of having an affair. The wife defends herself, saying she hadn’t wanted to cheat on him, she just needed to feel loved, and she says he never makes her feel special. After a severe argument, the man finally realizes that, although his wife did cheat on him, he ultimately drove her to. The woman decides to leave the house, and they part ways, not angry at each other any more. 

NARRATIVE OUTLINE: A man named WESTON HAYES is sitting inside his car across the street from an office building, eating take out chinese food. He checks his watch repeatedly and continues to look at the entrance to the building. After a few moments his wife, JANET HAYES, walks out of the office building. He’s been waiting for her, and when she gets in her car down the street and drives away, he follows her at a distance. She leads him past a street titled Freemont St., and he is curious as to why they are passing the street. After a while of following her she leads him down a neighborhood street titled Bleeker St. She parks outside of a very nice looking two story house, and Weston watches as Janet walks up to the front door. A man opens it, kisses her and she walks inside. Weston is very angry.

A few hours later Janet comes home with Chinese Food, and she is wearing yoga attire. Trying to think of exactly how to approach the situation, Weston merely says that he already had Chinese early that day, and asks her how her yoga class went. She says it went well, and with that information he corners her. He reminds her that the yoga class she takes is on Freemont and asks what she was doing on Bleeker street. She suddenly realizes that he knows, but still pretends to be indifferent, saying she wasn’t on Bleeker street. He tells her that he saw her with that man at his house, and knows that she is cheating on him. He’s been wondering for a while, he saw many signs. Why was she gone at the late night yoga class for many hours every wednesday and why, when she came home, did she smell like cologne that wasn’t his. 

He asks her what the guy’s name is, and knowing she can’t escape, she admits that his name is James and that he’s a pharmacist, and then she begins to turn the tables on him. She begins attacking everything she can about Weston, saying that he’s numb and irrational and jealous and that he loves his job more than he loves her; she uses all of these problems to say that Weston played a part in her adultery. Weston is outraged and he breaks some plates in anger. He accuses her of being ungrateful, saying that all he’s ever tried to do for her was give her the life she wanted. Janet says she never wanted this life. She never wanted to feel alone and unloved. Weston resorts back to his earlier argument, saying that he gives and gives to her and all she ever does is beg for more and when she can’t get more she goes off and screws James. She slaps him and he tells her to leave the house.

As Janet packs her clothes, she breaks down, telling Weston that she didn’t want to cheat on him, but she felt like she had to, so she could feel like somebody on the earth though she was special. She says all she ever wanted from Weston was for him to come home before his dinner got cold, and that she wanted him to talk to her instead of watching the news, and that she wanted him to kiss her goodnight instead of coming home after she’s asleep.

These words sting against Weston’s ego, but they finally reach him. He realizes that he pushed Janet to cheat on him. He apologizes for everything and says that they’ll try to work on the marriage with counseling. Janet apologizes too, because she can’t stay with him, because she can’t live the life she’s been living anymore. Weston says he loves her still, and she says she doesn’t love him anymore. Weston understands and Janet leaves the next morning. 

WHAT CAN AN AUDIENCE SHARE WITH THIS?: I think this story can perfectly share both aspects of a failing marriage. You can see the side of the man, who tries as hard as he can to accomplish all that he’s ever wanted to do in the pursuit of giving his wife happiness and the life she’s always wanted. Then she betrays him, cheating on him with another man and hiding it from him for who knows how long. Instead of just leaving, she goes behind his back to live another life one night a week with someone else. However, the woman defends herself by saying the man has tried to give her all the material things she could ever want, but in that pursuit he has lost sight of what she truly wanted; love. She wanted to be kissed, touched. She wanted a good conversation, she wanted to share something with the man she was living with. Soon his apathetic attitude towards the marriage drove her to find someone else who could quench her thirst for love. 

Both the husband and the wife were wrong, and right at the same time. I think an audience can learn that there is a side to every story, and that they can learn a lot from each other when they can have a simple conversation. Material things are finite, love can be infinite, and it’s important to not confuse the two.